DrGeorge Gosling

George is a Senior Lecturer in History. The focus of his teaching and research is modern British history, primarily using the themes of medicine, charity and welfare to explore wider questions of gender, citizenship and consumerism.

His first book, ‘Payment and Philanthropy in British Healthcare, 1918-48’ (MUP 2017), explored the complex meanings of payment in the pre-NHS hospital. It argues that, when patient payments became commonplace after the First World War, they neither empowered consumers as hoped nor crowded out the sick poor as feared, instead they found a surprisingly traditional accommodation with the long-established class-bound principles of philanthropy.

He is currently writing a history of British charity-run shops since the late eighteenth century, drawing attention to vast number of historic retail operations with aims other than fundraising. This follows the publication of a collection co-edited with Dr Alix Green and Dr Grace Millar on 'Retail and Community: Business, Charity and the End of Empire' (BUP, 2024). This book placed histories of charity shops and bazaars alongside case studies of commercial and co-operative retailers, offering insights into the class, gender and racial dynamics of ongoing community and social relations for shopkeeping in era otherwise characterised by the rise of modern retail and shopping.

He is also currently working on various journal articles, including on blind veterans as craftsmen and shopkeepers after the First World War, the trading history of the Salvation Army, the importance of Christmas in the history of charity retail, and the different pedagogical approaches to introducing university students to archival research. 

He is one of the convenors for the Institute of Historical Research's Contemporary British History seminar series and a trustee of the Voluntary Action History Society, and has previously held roles on the executive committee of the Social History Society.